Announcement

Services supporting this ability have already gone live, with Mercury FX having handled the integration into the Swarm platform.

The goal is to eventually support a bevy of FIAT currencies. In doing so, it is hoped that the flexibility afforded to potential investors helps grow the industry. Until now, the amount of potential participants has been limited. This is due to only offering access to digital securities through investment via BTC / ETH.

This move follows a recent trend that sees STOs accepting various forms of currency. For instance, just recently SHIPNEXT announced that investors may take part in their token offering through use of AMBER tokens.

It should be expected that many will begin to accept various forms of payments, as understanding and acceptance of STOs grows.

Live STOs

Acting as one of the leading STO platforms in the industry, SWARM currently has various STOs on the go. For example, here are a few companies making use of their services. With the aforementioned announcement, investors can now more easily take part in these opportunities.

Swarm

The Swarm platform was launched in early 2018, and is based out of California. Above all, they market themselves as a ‘fully decentralized capital market place that democratizes investing by using the power of the blockchain’.

Swarm CEO, Philipp Pieper, commented on the development with Mercury FX. He stated, “It’s become obvious that familiarity and trust are key to investors in order to create adoption for digital securities. Fiat gateways create that reliable and convenient entry point, so that people can now commit their fiat currencies against the investment opportunities on Swarm…The team at Mercury FX brings the experience, scale, and global reach to make this happen for investors.”

Swarm has had a very active year, as can be seen in their various established partnerships. For instance, here are a few that have working relationships with Swarm:

Openfinance network

Maker

Amazix

Securevote

Distributed Lab

For those interested in learning more about the Swarm platform, make sure to read their whitepaper HERE.

Mercury FX

Mercury FX is a London based company that was established a decade ago, in 2008. Above all, they specialize in offering currency services as an alternative to banks.

The company made waves earlier this year, as one of the first to partner with Ripple. As a result, that relationship saw the use of XRP facilitate growth within the remittance market.

Speaking on the partnership with Swarm, was Mercury FX founder, Alastair Constance. He stated, “We are thrilled to be working with Swarm, and to bring this innovative solution to so many investors,” said Alastair Constance, Founder of Mercury FX. “Swarm’s open technology is a perfect complement to Mercury FX, and they share our mission of constantly finding better ways to safely connect people and their money.”

Joshua Stoner is a multi-faceted working professional. He has a great interest in the revolutionary 'blockchain' technology. In addition to this, he is a licenced Paramedic in Nova Scotia, Canada. As such, he can provide emergency care/medicine to any situation necessitating it.

ABACA Partners with CoolBitx on CEZEX

This week saw more exciting developments in the Asian security token sector. CEZEX, Asia’s first licensed security token exchange, announced a strategic partnership with longtime blockchain hardware developers CoolBitx. The partnership strengthens CEZEX’s already pivotal role in the Asian market and demonstrates a desire for more security token integration in the region.

CEZEX

CEZEX is a Philippines-based security token exchange. The platform is unique in that it is the first licensed security token exchange in Asia. The platform is based in the Philippines Cagayan Economic Zone Authority and is the brainchild of the Asian Blockchain and Crypto Association (ABACA).

News of the CEZEX exchange first hit the market in January of this year when the platform’s backers announced plans to expand their operation into Hong Kong by 2020. This move places CEZEX in the ideal location for a security tokens exchange in the region. Hong Kong continues to see growth in their crypto sector ever since China banned most crypto-related activities back in August 2017.

CoolBitx

CoolBitx is an industry leader in the region. The firm made headlines way back in 2015 when it became the first company to introduce a Bluetooth cryptocurrency wallet. Since then, CoolBitx continued to expand its services. Today, the company offers a host of blockchain related products and services.

Charlie Lee Speaking on CoolBitx Wallet

For their part, CoolBitx will handle all security token custodial services for CEZEX. Security tokens differ from utility tokens in that they don’t permit anonymous transactions. Instead, security tokens must follow the strict securities laws already covering the market. CoolBitx will be responsible for verifying and completing tokenized securities exchange transactions. Their responsibilities extend after issuance and into secondary market transactions.

Secondary Market Concerns

While primary regulations are often integrated directly into a security token’s smart contract, secondary market compliance is a hot button issue in the market. Secondary market concerns hit a fevered pitch this week when the DTCC released their fair market practices paper which outlines how to deal with security tokens on the secondary market.

The intervention of the DTCC marks a turning point in tokenized securities. The DTCC handles securities exchanges for the traditional markets. The group handles quadrillions in securities exchanges yearly and their influence in the market can’t be understated. DTCC’s paper argued that security tokens need secondary compliance in order to maintain fair market practices currently in place. This is an argument echoed by many in the industry

ABACA Asian Blockchain and Crypto Association

ABACA continues to see expansion with this latest partnership. The group now includes multiple blockchain industry leaders. One of the group’s most prominent new members is the Taiwan-based Formosa Financial. Speaking on the group’s unprecedented growth, ABACA’s director, Mel Songco explained how the group creates a more “compliant and secure business environment.”

Security Tokens in Asia

Asia has always generated momentum in the cryptomarket. This latest maneuver demonstrates a desire by traditional investment firms to enter the blockchain space. You can expect to see more firms join ABACA in the coming months as the digital economic revolution continues.

Archax Gears up for Launch with Quod Financial

AEP Integration

Today, a forth coming digital securities exchange, Archax, has announced a partnership with Quod Financial. This pairing will see Archax turn to Quod Financial for various services, ranging from smart-order routing, trade automation, to order management and more.

These services are made available through integration with Quod Financial’s ‘Adaptive Execution Platform’. Capabilities made possible through this platform will allow for Archax to effectively deliver their product to institutional investors this coming year. If they achieve this goal, Archax will become – with the help of Quod Financial – one of the first offerings of its type seen in the industry.

Commentary

In their press release, representatives from both companies took the time to elaborate on the development.

“Archax will be the first venue to bring digital asset trading into the mainstream financial community. Existing crypto venues have been primarily retail driven, and so it has been incredibly challenging for our buy-side and sell-side clients to include any form of blockchain-based instruments in their portfolios as they have lacked a regulated and stable venue. Given the rigorous selection process, we are proud to have been selected for this market-changing project to bring both digital assets as well as our data-driven execution intelligence to a wider audience.”

“We wanted to find a best-of-breed partner with an established and proven trading platform used by both the buy-side and sell-side. And one that was ready to handle the complexities of digital assets. Quod’s open, scalable and robust platform fitted the bill perfectly and we are happy to be able to offer it to clients as one of the ways of accessing our exchange…A key decision when evaluating technology providers from the traditional world was to find a platform that could be fully customised to support the new and developing security token space. Quod’s design, using industry standard architecture, allows easier customisation when required. That, coupled with their experience of handling high throughput trading for many tier-one banks and an array of other established regulated clients, made them an ideal partner.”

Quod Financial

Quod Financial is an established company specializing in capital markets. Since their launch in 2004, the company has expanded from London to maintaining offices in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, and Dubai.

Archax

This London based company was founded in 2018 by Graham Rodford, Matthew Pollard, and Andrew Flatt. The company is aiming for a 2019 launch of their platform, designed to act as an exchange for digital securities.

In Other News

Archax, in particular, has found themselves in our news feed various times in past months. They have had an impressive development period, resulting in investments from SPiCE VC among others. Check out the articles below to learn a little more about Archax.

seriesOne to Utilize ST-20 Standard by Polymath

End-to-End

Various companies have made announcements detailing intended usage of token standards lately. As the development of various crowdfunding platforms in the digital securities sector continues, the time has come for many to choose what they feel is the most promising standard. With this in mind, seriesOne has just announced that they have partnered with Polymath.

This partnership will see seriesOne utilize the ST-20 token standard to issue and manage digital securities. The ST-20 protocol is based off of the Ethereum blockchain, and will allow for seriesOne to maintain compliance with global regulations governing the industry.

The Future is ST-20

For seriesOne, it was a simple choice to settle on ST-20. This token standard was one of the first to be developed specifically with digital securities in mind. As such, Polymath has had more time than most to develop, hone, and market their offering. This effort has seen the standard adopted by various companies, with seriesOne being the most recent.

Commentary

In their press release, the CEOs of each company took the time to express their thoughts on the announced partnership.

“Investors around the world trust Polymath, which was fundamental to our decision to work together…We are confident that working with the Polymath team using the ST-20 protocol will enhance the process of raising capital on our platform.”

“Polymath is proud to work with innovative partners like seriesOne, who has fulfilled a specific demand for a turnkey financing portal for any fundraising process…We are thrilled to be the chosen technology standard for the seriesOne platform, and we look forward to demonstrating yet again how industry can work together to set a standard for creating and managing a successful Security Token Offering (STO).”

seriesOne

seriesOne is a crowdfunding platform, which specializes in the issuance, distribution, and management of digital securities. Through their platform, issuers are able to effectively, and efficiently, host security token offerings. The company is based out of Miami, and was founded in 2013.

Polymath

Polymath is a Canadian company, which maintains headquarters in Toronto. The company was established in 2017, and is spearheaded by CEO, Kevin North.

To date, Polymath and their token standards remain one of the most adopted solutions in the young world of digital securities. Their own utility token is available for trading on various industry leading cryptocurrency exchanges such as Poloniex and Bittrex.

In Other News

Each of these companies discussed here today have found their way into our headlines in recent months. For a look at what they have been up to recently, make sure to check out the few articles listed below!